Contemporary country music is a small-c conservative style, filled with songs that extol an Eden-like yesterday, where the little guy is king and small-town values rule. Brad Paisley certainly follows that tradition, but at his sold-out Hollywood Bowl debut Saturday night, he pulled off the neat trick of also keeping one foot in the modern world.

A genial presence with a wispy goatee and a white cowboy hat, the West Virginian is right at home laconically singing about the joys of drinking by the lake, getting mud on his truck’s tires and indulging old-fashioned courtship. But the handsome, square-jawed singer is a multiplatinum superstar married to actress Kimberly Williams (of the Father of the Bride movies and the sitcom According to Jim) who can joke that the Bowl stage is “a long way from home,” even though the couple has a house in L.A.

He can matter-of-factly sing about video chats with companies in Tokyo and swoon over a butterfly tattoo (changed to a Dodger logo for this crowd) half-hidden on the small of a pretty girl’s back. Yet, no matter which side of the fence he’s working, Paisley’s songs are delivered with a down-to-earth ingenuousness. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a tremendous guitar player and crafty songwriter who can write and play with smarts and wry good humor.

He can put the wonders of the modern world into perspective with a wonderfully dinky-sounding synthesizer, and on “Southern Comfort Zone” he proved equally adept at defending the South, while insisting that not everyone down there drives a truck or owns guns. (It also finds him defending himself to the South and climaxes with a taped church choir singing “Dixie.”)

All of this, he insists, is country music, and he deftly slips Lee Greenwood’s flag-waving “God Bless the U.S.A.” and images of Reba McEntire and Brooks & Dunn into the roll call of George Jones, Johnny Paycheck and Kris Kristofferson that ends “This Is Country Music.”

Introducing one of his more clever bits of self-deprecating commentary, “I’m Still a Guy,” he joked that women often try so hard to change and “feminize” their boyfriends that soon there will be “binders filled with men.” But he’s just as quick to poke fun at himself, admitting that being famous lets him get away with being foolish. He also brought out opener Scotty McCreery for “Celebrity,” welcoming the American Idol winner – who displayed a pleasantly round baritone in his 25-minute slot – to “the club.”

For all his fame, however, Paisley makes sure to stay grounded. “Letter to Me,” a gentle solo guitar song written to his 17-year-old self, was performed from the middle of the enormous amphitheater because, as he noted, he used to sit to the rear when he first started going to concerts. He thanked his fans for supporting him in “these economically hard times.”

That inclusiveness ran through the nearly two-hour show, where he wore his genre’s self-imposed limitations lightly, both honoring and skewing clichés. He could snap off the twangy, skittish licks that scream “Country” from Nashville to Bakersfield, but his solo for “Waiting on a Woman” (performed with a video featuring and dedicated to the late Andy Griffith) added those ringing open fifths so associated with U2’s the Edge, while “Then” found him soaring like Eric Clapton. “Online,” too, was kicked off with an intro straight out of the Who’s “Baba O’Riley.”

Still, it was those moments when he turned serious that cut deepest: “Remind Me,” for instance, about a couple trying to rekindle the passion of first love, with Paisley able to keep up with the powerful pipes of hologram surprise Carrie Underwood, who also performs on the original recording.

And on “Whiskey Lullaby,” a wrenching ballad of alcoholism, he was joined by the Band Perry, whose 45-minute set immediately preceding his was a little too slick for its own good. The family act’s best feature is lead singer Kimberly Perry, an ebullient blonde with mussed-up hair, a short skirt, knee-high boots and an appealingly hoarse voice. She’s the sexy girl who can keep up with the boys.

Brad Paisley performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Brad Paisley performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
USC dental school alumni enjoy the scene at the Hollywood Bowl before Brad Paisley's concert on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Jarrod, Cullen, and Giovanni, from left, were hanging out and having fun before Brad Paisley's Hollywood Bowl concert on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Singer Kimberly Perry of the Band Perry performs during the band's opening set for Brad Paisley at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Mandolinist Neil Perry of the Band Perry performs Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Bassist Reid Perry of the Band Perry performs Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Brad Paisley performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Brad Paisley performs near the edge of the stage at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
UCLA alumnae Amanda, Katherine, Marissa, and Lauren, from left, picnic Saturday outside of the Hollywood Bowl before Brad Paisley's concert. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Kimberly Perry of the Band Perry performs Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Brad Paisley chats with his Hollywood Bowl audience in between songs on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Huntington Beach girls Alex Edwards and Elise Clifford, from left, pose for a photo with Ken the Saxman who can always be found performing in the Highland Avenue undercrossing, which leads to the Hollywood Bowl. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Brad Paisley performs at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Brad Paisley takes a moment from singing to play a little guitar during his Hollywood Bowl concert on Saturday. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Sisters from Seal Beach Morgan and Erin McGee, from left, and their friend from Long Beach Meggan Seyfried tailgate before Saturday's Brad Paisley concert at the Hollywood Bowl. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Kimberly Perry of the Band Perry performs Saturday at the Hollywood Bowl. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER
Saturday's Brad Paisley show at the Hollywood Bowl was the first country concert attended by Patrick and Chely Conejo. ARMANDO BROWN, FOR THE REGISTER

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